My heart breaks a thousand times for those who suffer in silence, their voices muffled, their bodies hidden from us.

My heart breaks a thousand times for those who are born not to see sunlight, those who are fed not to be nourished, those whose lives face execution, those whose deaths are planned.

My heart breaks a thousand times for those who are kept as slaves, those who never knew what it is like to be loved, those whose choices were taken away from them.

My heart breaks a thousand times for the pigs and cows and chickens and lambs and dogs and cats and rabbits and monkeys and elephants and dolphins and whales and turtles and fish and all other beings whose lives most people ignore and do not care about.

My heart breaks a thousand times for the callousness that is required for humans to eat flesh and secretions of animals because of trivial reasons as convenience, taste, and desire.

My heart breaks a thousand times for the walls human beings put up, for seeing nonhumans as things, for not regarding the rights of animals to have freedom and love.

My heart breaks a thousand times when it seems I am all alone in seeing this hell on Earth.

This is the hardest part of being vegan, having your fragile heart break a thousand times.